The leader of the extremist anti-Islam group Pegida in the Netherlands, Edwin Wagensfeld, desecrated a copy of the Holy Quran under police protection on Saturday, September 23.
Wagensfeld’s provocative act, which took place in front of the Turkish embassy in The Hague, enraged many people triggering a protest.
The video clip shared on social media showed that Wagensfeld tore pages of the Quran and trampled on them.
Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, “We condemn in the strongest terms the despicable attacks that targeted our holy book, the Qur’an, today in front of the embassies of some member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, including our embassy in the Dutch city of The Hague.”
The ministry urges countries witnessing attacks to take action against religious hatred and international law violations, condemning European authorities for blindly ignoring these acts under the guise of freedom of expression.
On Saturday Turkish House in New York after the 78th UN General Assembly, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said that “the vile attacks on the Holy Quran and anti-Islamic actions have become like an epidemic in Europe.”
Over the past month, he descrated copies of Quran in front of embassies of Pakistan and Indonesia.
On Friday, September 22, the Quran that was torn on August 18 by Wagensfeld was given to Turkey’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Anadolu Agency reported.
Right-wing extremists have repeatedly desecrated the Quran in front of Muslim embassies in Sweden and Denmark, causing outrage among Arab and Islamic communities.
